A resist ink is a specially mixed application ink in production that prevents other layers or colours from overprinting where it lies. It is a typical process in many areas of textile printing, creating a similar effect to that of printing on wax or similar substances, which will not hold inks. The resist ink (generally containing a special oil or wax to create the resist) can usually be mixed to offer varying degrees of resistance to the overprinting inks.

Resist inks are a quick and cost effective way for production houses to create specific effects in production without the need to get costly cylinders re-engraved. Such effects can be simulated in AVA by allocating a resist layer and setting up one or more colours as resist colours. The chip is usually white in colour which when used with 100% transparency on an AVA layer, will also give the effect of a non coloured ink with resist.

1. Click on a chip in your colour file, and select Colour Menu > Edit Chip.  The following window will open;
   
   
2. Enter an appropriate percentage in the Resist field. 1 is the minimum and 100 is the maximum. Setting a resist of 100 means that where you have full 100% tone on the Resist layer (using this Resist colour), no information from layers printing over the resist layer will show in that area. Where the resist layer has areas of lower tonal value, some information from the over printed layers will be seen. When a lower resist value is used for the resist colour, more information from the overprinted layers will be printed (as less is resisted).
3. Click OK and then drag the edited colour on to the resist layer in the design in AVA. The effect of the Resist setting will be seen instantly as all layers which sit on top of the resist layer will be altered (depending on the value used in the Resist chip). The colour AVA Printing White can be used as a Resist colour and will make a nice clean colour. PANTONE®®® colours on the other hand cannot be used as Resist colours as they cannot be edited.